Sustained NIOSH mining research staff cuts could violate federal court order

Last week, U.S. District Judge Irene Berger granted a request from Kanawha County resident and Raleigh County miner Harry Wiley to restore jobs within the Respiratory Health Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

But the District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia ruling went further, ordering that “there be no pause, stoppage or gap in the protections and services mandated by Congress in the Mine Act and the attendant regulations for the health and safety of miners.�

Berger notes in her order that the Mine Act, or Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, incorporates reference to the NIOSH, including providing for the NIOSH and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, to submit results of “research, demonstrations, and experiments� while advising the Department of Labor secretary of the need to issue new rules to carry out the Mine Act.

Berger observes that the NIOSH is required under federal code to permanently establish a mine safety and health office to enhance “development of new mine safety technology and technological applications and to expedite the commercial availability and implementation of such technology in mining environments.�

But even after Berger’s May 14 order, the nation’s mining safety and health research is expected to essentially cease to exist next month because of terminations still slated for employees comprising NIOSH mining research divisions in Pittsburgh and Spokane, Washington amid a sweeping HHS downsizing being implemented by HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.

NIOSH mining research employees represented by American Federation of Government Employees Local 1916 slated to lose their jobs total 110 in Pittsburgh and 85 in Spokane, respectively, AFGE Local 1916 president Lilas Soukup told the Gazette-Mail Tuesday.

Beckley-based attorney Sam Petsonk co-filed Wiley’s complaint resulting in last week’s order and believes the order covers NIOSH mining research programs in Pittsburgh and Spokane. Petsonk said Tuesday he plans to see whether HHS certifies the restoration of NIOSH mining research programs under Berger’s order. The order required Kennedy to submit written certification of compliance with the ruling within 20 days.

‘One we need to get fixed’

Some U.S. senators made clear to Kennedy at a subcommittee hearing Tuesday they want more NIOSH jobs restored.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., decried cuts to staff at the NIOSH Spokane Mining Research Division, noting the Spokane unit focuses on what he called “unique challenges� of geologically complex mining operations in the western U.S.

The NIOSH has been a key funding source for accredited mining schools. Rounds noted the Spokane Mining Research Division has provided “critical support� through funding to institutions like the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in his district.

Rounds lamented that a $1.2 million grant for the school to improve underground mining safety had been canceled due to a loss of oversight from the Spokane office, which he said undermined the nation’s ability to meet national security goals tied to mineral independence and supply chain resilience.

Kennedy told Rounds he would work with him to protect miners and invited Rounds to contact his office.

“This is one we need to get fixed,� Rounds told Kennedy.

Kennedy was before the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee to present a fiscal year 2026 HHS budget request.

In an opening statement in her first hearing as chair of the subcommittee, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she didn’t think eliminating NIOSH programs would “right-size our government.�

“I encourage you to look closely at all of NIOSH’s offices and bring back additional critical staff,� Capito said.

Unions pushing back

The preventative work of those NIOSH mining research divisions has complemented rather than duplicated the diagnostic work that restored Respiratory Health Division employees have performed.

The Pittsburgh Mining Research Division has focused on coal, stone, sand and gravel mining, while the Spokane Mining Research Division has focused on deep underground metal mines and large open pits, with both collaborating on projects. Both the Pittsburgh and Spokane divisions have studied how to control mine dust and protect miners from dust exposure.

Effectively eliminating those divisions could mean the elimination of projects they have taken on, including analyzing toxic silica dust and destigmatizing mental health.

Both the Pittsburgh and Spokane mining research divisions were working on near-real-time silica analysis projects and had contract efforts curtailed by HHS “reduction in force� notices and contract terminations, according to mine safety experts.

HHS announced in March it aimed to downsize from roughly 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees via early retirement and voluntary resignation initiatives.

“We intend to do more, a lot more, with less,� Kennedy said at Tuesday’s subcommittee hearing.

HHS announced in March it would combine the NIOSH with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry into a newly created Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.

United Mine Workers of America International president Cecil Roberts and leaders and members of AFGE Local 1916 (Pittsburgh), AFGE Local 3430 (Morgantown) and AFGE Local 3840 (Cincinnati) are slated for a rally to protest NIOSH job cuts Thursday at noon in front of HHS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Unions across nursing, education, mining and manufacturing industries, including the UMWA, sued HHS in a District of Columbia federal court last week to stop the agency from carrying out what the lawsuit alleges has been an “effective shutdown� of the NIOSH.

A day before that lawsuit was filed, Berger’s order had established that the HHS wasn’t immune to legal pushback.

“Firing people does not insulate arbitrary and capricious agency action from review,� Berger wrote.